


Hero until the end

by kaylavillain



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Abuse, Angst and Tragedy, Anxiety Attacks, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, Death Idealization, Delusions, Depersonalization, Derealization, Drugs, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Good Cop Bad Cop, Hallucinations, Hurt No Comfort, It’s for you to decide how you see the ending, Non-Consensual Drug Use, November 20 Interrogation (Persona 5), Overdose, Panic Attacks, Persona 5 Spoilers, Physical Abuse, Police Brutality, Possible Character Death, Psychological Horror, Psychological Torture, Psychological Trauma, Stabbing, Tragedy, Truth Serum, Violence, Well.. questionable comfort, psychotic episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:55:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,192
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29810826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaylavillain/pseuds/kaylavillain
Summary: "I know people of your type.." Spoke the man once again; his voice was deep and raspy. Akira did not want to think about the resemblance of it with his father's tone, "You are one of those with delusional complexes that think that they know what the fuck they are doing." He spatted out, and reached out to grab the teen by the collar of his shirt while pulling him in, "But let me break it to ya, you fucking don't. You are a fucking child that decided to feel special. You drowned in fame and feeling of power - and look where it had brought you." He broke into a weak sarcastic chuckle at the end, and without a warning — one more merciless punch was delivered at raven's face.
Relationships: Kurusu Akira & Takamaki Ann
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Hero until the end

**Author's Note:**

> I always wanted to see a scenario of a detailed interrogation room. I honestly think that Persona 5 game did not focus enough on the whole incident but let's be honest that it was extremely traumatic for Akira. They should have seriously considered to give more time for the protagonist to heal or at least for his friends to care. But.. Here you are. Even though I admit, this is not the same interrogation as in the game. My version is a bit more brutal - proceed with caution: CHECK THE TAGS AND READ NOTES! 
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> Trigger warning: Derealization with delusional symbolism and delusional features, Derealization with obsessive questions and random sentences/words, Derealization with jumping back and forth in reality/time, Drug overdose, Brutal physical violence, Brutal psychological abuse, Paranoia/Panic attacks, Use of good cop and bad cop tactic, Psychological and Physical torture, Stabbing, Desire to die, Hallucinations and Delusions, Non-consensual drug use, Hints on major character death, Delusional thoughts, Intrusive thoughts, Slight death idealization, Extreme police brutality 
> 
> WARNING! THIS STORY SHOULD NOT BE USED AS A TRIGGER NOR DOES IT "SEND YOU ANY MESSAGES". IT'S A MADE UP FICTION. As someone who also struggles with such issues, I am warning you: if you struggle with psychosis, derealization, depersonalization and get triggered with any of the warnings that I have listed above - do NOT proceed. You have been warned. 
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> Side note: The relationship tag does not specify wether Ann and Akira are best friends or lovers - it's for you to decide. But Ann and Phantom Thieves are barely present in the story.
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> POSSIBLE GRAMMATICAL MISTAKES! Feel free to point them out and criticize the work in a nice form 😊

_Everything is going to be okay,_ he told himself as they walked down the ghostly underground hallways. He had friends that were going to save him and Sae that was going to interrogate him soon and help him escape away from Akechi's death trap.

However, once Akira got pushed inside the room with no windows and two men tangling behind him, he was expecting anything but what was about to come. Nobody could ever mentally prepare themselves for anything of such sort.

Inside it smelled like metal and everything around him was cold to the point that he could genuinely catch a fever if he would stay in this place for too long. There was nothing much to inspect; just a chair, table, and some instruments on top of it. And yet the teenager's stomach flipped upside down at the presented sight — there were neatly laid out needles and more equipment that he was unsure of why it was there in the first place. The teen played with his sleeve while nervously, slowly turning around.

In the Metaverse — he was _Joker_. He was _the leader of the Phantom Thieves_ that was unbeatable in the battle with his enemies. A genius that was able to lead his whole group towards victory with the army of loyal Personas hanging on his back. One Treasure after another — it all felt like a game up until now. Like hide-and-seek, that was eventually going to end with a snap of his fingers at his wish.

But this was _reality_. In this realm, he was nothing but a loner, or maybe even a loser. Someone who was an unfortunate victim to a corrupt justice in the hands of distorted adults. A delinquent known to his Academy, a rumored criminal, and an unwanted child by his parents. Through his whole stay in Tokyo, he could not recall getting a single text from his father or mother about his wellbeing, physical health, or anything else. They got all the information that they needed from Sojiro, and when that was required they sent financial support - nothing more.

In this reality, he was not Joker, but _Akira Kurusu._ A boy who did not have Personas to aid him in the dark, but just a child with nothing but a clenched fist to hold while having to depend on soon-to-be-ruined enthusiasm.

The guards were dressed in professional, business-like costumes and radiated a truly dangerous aura. Their facial expressions were twisted and malicious at the same time. Akira used his third eye while looking up at them, and no wonder they both were glowing in red. It was a rare sight, whenever they were in Palaces enemies had always been marked in blue or green, but never red.

This was scary. He would never admit to such thoughts out loud, but he was genuinely terrified.

"We can play this the nice way.." said one of them, his every step echoed all over the room which sent a shiver down the teen's spine, "..or the bad way. It all depends on you and how willing you are to break."

Akira said nothing to that. He knew when to keep his tongue behind his teeth, and currently, it was one of such situations where he should remain quiet no matter what. There were times when silence spoke louder than the words and now was the particular moment.

"Playing hero until the very end.. huh?" The man groaned and turned around to which the raven exhaled with relief. A big mistake. Soon enough he felt his whole mind flash in shock, and with a gasp, he stumbled back and lost the balance off his feet after the guard's fist collided with his cheek.

It _hurt_. It hurt so much. His skin was already glowing with an angry red color and pulsing from an injury. His body was still recovering from the surprise of such an unexpected, violent assault.

"I know people of your type.." Spoke the man once again; his voice was deep and raspy. Akira did not want to think about the resemblance of it with his father's tone, "You are one of those with delusional complexes that think that they know what the fuck they are doing." He spatted out, and reached out to grab the teen by the collar of his shirt while pulling him in, "But let me break it to ya, you fucking don't. You are a fucking child that decided to feel special. You drowned in fame and feeling of power - and look where it had brought you." He broke into a weak sarcastic chuckle at the end, and without a warning — one more merciless punch was delivered at the raven's face.

"In the world that we live in, there are always going to be people that are above you. And right this instant - a person who is so above you, so above you that you should lick his shoes - might keep you alive if you are going to open your mouth and tell us everything." There was a moment when Akira was listening, but it was brief and dull. No, he was not going to be fooled or phased by them. He had to stay strong for his friends and family and keep them safe. A couple of punches would not be enough for him to sell out his confidants.

"I h-have n-nothing t-to tell you. I d-don't know w-what y-you are t-talking a-about." The boy might have been stuttering, but he could not talk in any other way. His hands were visibly shaking and piling up on sweat, as he tried to sneakily wipe them against his trousers.

"Playing fucking dumb, aren't we?" Snickered the guard while standing up and approaching his colleague who stood quietly in a corner without even a single look of pity in his eyes, "Someone would say that this is a smart tactic, but I think that you're being plain idiotic." He snarled and turned around with a small bottle in his hand, "Do you know what this is?" No reaction, "This is Sodium thiopental, you might recognize it under the name of — Truth Serum."

Akira gasped at that and rose his face with wide eyes. He heard about these drugs, but he would have never thought that one of those was ever going to be used on him. His whole body paled at the sudden realization. The battle was about to begin against himself.

"You can either talk now.." The man said while taking a hold of a syringe on the table and stabbing it into the bottle; he slowly filled it up with the liquid and tapped at the needle once he was done getting rid of oxygen bubbles, "Or talk once you'll get a taste of this." Akira bit into his lower lip and shook his head, _god he was fucking terrified,_ "Well, at least you live up to your infamous title of being a pain in the ass."

Then it happened. The guard was by his side; raven knew that he had to somehow resist it all. He attempted to kick the other with his leg but failed the moment there was someone's body behind him while holding him down. Blood was pumping his veins in panic and supplying him with adrenaline, screaming at him to not give up yet.

"No, this won't do." The first one said, "Put him on the chair and hold him out." His partner did everything without a single question while pulling the poor boy up on top of the metallic stool.

As much as Akira tried to struggle it eventually resulted for him with a merciless punch in the stomach. He had never been kicked this hard; he felt vomit tingle depths of his throat and air getting completely knocked out of his lungs. The man used the teen's confusion as an opportunity to take a grip on his arm and fold up the sleeve; exposing a vein that was visible through the skin. In a second raven felt his arm being penetrated with a small, sharp object, and even though he knew that he should have kept protesting — his whole body froze.

He was terrified of an idea that a single move or flinch was going to somehow mess something up and everything would end up in the worst way possible. Suddenly he felt a battle with his pride and fear blur slowly into one and his head hung low. It was too heavy like it had never been before. His whole body was like that — almost as if it was not his own; not listening to him.

Akira had no idea whether they had already stopped injecting him or whether they kept going on and on, but even though his mind was pacing in complete bloodcurdling terror - his body felt like it was on the highest clouds. Eventually, it became impossible to tell apart the smells and sounds around him as everything was mixing in a single, messed-up image in his head. _Nothing is making sense anymore,_ he concluded in his head while turning to look around but he couldn't.

It was as if he were a statue and if not his lucky position in the chair he would have collapsed forward right into the ground with his face. The act of thinking was getting too hard to do and too slow. Everything just felt like it was all a movie set, and did not belong to any parts of Akira's original life. He was slowly drifting somewhere far, far away from here, and falling into a deep sleep with his eyelids becoming as heavy as rocks.

There was no point in staying awake anyway, it was not like anything but the pain was going to come out of this miserable night, so he might as well take a rest now. Just for an hour, a minute, or at least a second. He could hear the two men talking in the background, something about side effects and anesthetics, but he could not care less.

**In this green forest.**

Akira felt himself jolt awake in a massive flinch the moment his whole body got soaked in the ice-cold water. His form felt like it was being pulled to the ground with a powerful gravity force, and his limbs were aching from not having enough blood flow circulating in them. He had tried to remember what was going on, but everything surrounding him was stretching so slowly, that he almost wanted to simply give up. However, he had to force himself to stay present — he was in _danger_.

There were droplets of water dripping onto the floor from his locks of hair; the sound that was small and repetitive like that in the deep silence of this room was going to drive him insane. He had to make it stop somehow, but as he tried to move his hands to do something about his hair — it hit his realization that they were tied behind the chair's back.

Akira tried to tug them apart but that resulted in leaving him almost breathless. as this was taking way too much power from him. He suddenly felt like sleeping yet again, but before he could — there was another bucket of water thrown at him.

"Not so fast." The man spoke; and when raven stared at his face he knew that this man was somehow familiar but he could not understand how exactly, "We don't have all day, you know." _But I just want to sleep,_ thought Akira in his hazy state of mind that was unable to process anything properly.

"T-tired.." he mumbled under his breath; he might have not been aware of the fact that he announced it out loud, but it was not like it mattered to him at the moment. Everything was spinning and spinning without a stop, and even though he was stable in one place, he could feel himself getting carsick and nauseous, "C-cold.." _Yes, it was freezing._ The water that slowly began to evaporate did not have any mercy towards the teen who was shivering.

"Good." Smirked the man, and fisted his hand into Akira's locks while making the other lookup. He put his neck at such angle knowing that it was going to hurt the other; and as expected raven moaned in pain and had difficulty taking in breaths, "Are we ready to chat?" He did not wait for an answer, "Tell us your methods." Raven shook his head because honestly, he had no idea what they were even talking about.

"So what, you want another shot?!" Snarled the male at him while cocking the head in the direction of his colleague.

This time they took his opposite arm and repeated the process. Everything felt so heavy that he could not even fight off what was happening, but he for sure did not like it. This time Akira felt like he was going to throw up; the room became even colder to the point that he had to grit his teeth. He needed a blanket or a change of clothes. Raven's vision was also not the best one — there were constantly black dots appearing here and there, or objects looked bigger or smaller than before.

He felt _sick_.

"What about now?" Asked the man, "Or should we convince you even more?" Akira wanted to cry, but he couldn't. He was the leader of the Phantom Thieves, after all, so he had to keep it all in for as long as possible, "I see." The guard said in a dangerously calm voice.

Akira flinched so hard the moment that the man dragged him up — with his hands still tied behind his back ( _oh, wait. those were handcuffs_ ) and forcefully pushed him down onto the floor. Everything spun so hard in the raven's already drugged-up state that he instantly lost his balance and fell on the cold ground like a ragdoll.

It suddenly hit him that he was going to throw up, but before he could - a shoe was forced into his mouth and soon enough was stepping into his face. The pressure of the foot instantly formed into an unbearable migraine, meanwhile, the smell of dirt somewhat sobered him up. The leg got lifted up and then quickly collided with his chin, kicking him so hard in the bone that Akira by accident bit down with his teeth on his tongue; making it bleed inside his mouth. The taste of iron clouded him, and he lightly coughed - just to get it out of him.

It hurt _so_ much.

"Talk!" The man roared at him and with full aggression swung his leg into the teenager's guts over and over again until he got slightly breathless. Akira felt tears collect themselves at the corners of his eyes, praying to anyone out there for it to be over, "Who are your accomplices?! Who are they?!" Roared the elder as he once again punched the boy but this time in the ribs, "Tell me!" _One more,_ "Tell me!" _One more,_ "Tell! Me!" He stepped back with disgust plastered all over his face while looking at the boy like at the scum of the Earth.

"Are you keeping quiet because you think we will not use physical torture methods on you?"

Something sunk deep in his stomach, and he felt his whole boy violently shake just at the image of what they were going to do to him. His ears were already ringing, mouth full of blood, vision blurry and hands were all in cuts from handcuffs. What more could they do to a teenager? _What else? Why? Why? Why?_ He missed being unconscious because that was the time when he did not have to care about what was happening around him and he did not have to care about the pain since it wasn't there, to begin with.

But he was awake.

The man searched his pockets and pulled out something that even raven's drugged-up mind had immediately recognized. It was a pocket knife, and it looked especially sharp. The blade even shined in the dim lights with pride. Such a weapon in the hands of his current abuser terrified Akira to the core of his being. He felt his heartbeat picking up its pace all over again, his forehead sweating and his eyes going wide in terror of what was to come. He could not remember the last time that he had felt this scared.

"P-please.. N-no.. D-don't.." The teen shook his head, but that resulted in the man stretching his lips in a wide, excited grin. It was like he was getting off from causing the other so much pain and suffering; a truly sadistic nature that took pleasure in inflicting forceful breakdowns and submissions. 

"I will if you talk." He reminded his victim, and Akira looked away at that while knitting his eyebrows in pure despair. No matter how much he had to go through, he was not going to sell out his friends. He had one goal - talk to Sae; she was the only one that he could trust and put all of his hope into. _What was taking her so long? Why was she not here? Please, hurry. Please._

"I guess that means you won't talk." Shrugged the guard, "Well, then just know that everything that's happening to you is your damn fault." And then there was a loud thud in the room. Akira did not even register from where the sound came from until he realized that it was himself throwing his head back and hitting the floor the moment that the man stabbed his thigh.

At first, it was just the shock from what had happened, and then a warm liquid of something flowing down his skin and soaking his fabric. Then the pain began to settle in and it was agonic, but he could not allow himself to scream. Akira shut his eyes while violently - not biting, but chewing - on his lower lip in hopes of distraction and prayers that sounds that were threatening to escape from his throat were going to die down.

"Shit! Don't tell me you penetrated the artery!" The second guard finally spoke up; to be honest, raven almost forgot that the man was even there given how quiet and uninterested he was with the whole scene, "He's bleeding too fucking much, at this point he'll fucking die." The other ran up to Akira to take in his state.

"So what? Not like the higher-ups would even really care; don't worry — I didn't get an artery." He reassured his colleague and then looked back at the boy, "This was a warning. Or do you want to find out what else I can do? Hm?" He flipped the knife that was fully covered in Akira's blood in his hand like a child's toy.

"Hey. No need to be so harsh to him. This is enough." The second one spoke, while gently taking a hold on the boy's upper boy and making him rest against the wall, "Don't forget that he is just a child, let's be more gentle with him." This person radiated off a kind aura that Akira felt himself immediately trying to clench to because he was being defended by this man from a pure monster. Maybe this was going to stop and he was just going to be left alone, "How are you feeling? Can you hear me?"

"Y-yes.." Nodded his head raven and his eyes lightened up with a seeking feeling, "H-help.."

"Mm.." the second one hummed to himself as he rubbed his chin. His movements were slow and careful; this man was most likely thinking of what he was doing and how. Trying to calm down the teenager who at the sound of the first one groaning in annoyance violently flinched.

"This is so unfair, isn't it?" He asked, and Akira's drugged-up mind that was too simple at the moment found himself nodding once more, "Shhh.. I know, I know. After all, you were just trying to help society, it's not fair that this is the type of thanks that you are getting." The tone that spoke to him seemed to be so understanding, it was breaking him apart, "It must have been so tiring and exhausting to be the Leader of the wanted group, wasn't it?"

This babying attitude and sudden change in treatment were almost impossible to understand and properly process for the person who was in a mental state like Akira. Things kept zooming in and out, he was slowly losing blood and his ability to stay awake. But for some reason, he began to cling to a theory that this man was his key to escape and safety, so he could not let it go.

"Y-yes.." he agreed in a weak, shaky voice at which the guard smiled and petted him on top of the head, "T-tired.."

"I know you are. And you know what? I am going to let you sleep as much as you want once you'll tell him what he wants to know." The cop tilted his head at the colleague with a knife who took a seat on the chair as he watched their interaction with amusement. _Why was this funny to him,_ thought Akira, but his mind was too loud and messy to keep a single wonder going.

 _Where was he even? Was all of this around him even real?_ He felt himself wishing more and more that he could just disappear into the pits of nowhere or wake up from this overly realistic, cursed nightmare. Was he asleep? He must be since nobody would be capable of being so cruel with him within the police station's walls. Akira suddenly realized that he could not feel his fingers at all, it was like they were cut off from his hands. In panic that this could have been the cause, he quickly tried to move them, and thankfully they were okay.

So far.

"Hey, hey. Stay focused, okay?" The second man reminded Akira of his existence with a quiet tone, and seeing that raven reacted and looked at him with unfocused eyes — he smiled, "Good. You're handling this very well, but know that this will not stop unless you tell me everything about your methods of stealing hearts." The teenager deeply frowned, "Don't worry, you can just tell me and I will keep it all a secret from him, okay? He won't know anything, and everyone who you care about is going to stay safe." Such reassurance made raven's eyes swell up with tears all over again.

"R-really?" He re-asked, like a small child.

"Yes. I promise." Assured him the cop while chuckling, "And all of this is going to be over." He added, which honestly sounded like a good deal to make.

But Akira was quick to snap out of it. The only one who he was supposed to talk to tonight about the Phantom Thieves' business was Sae Nijima. It was Makoto Nijima's older sister that was a persecutor coming to question him. He could trust and give all data needed only to her because she was the only one able to save him from Goro Akechi's attack. Right. Right. Right.

"I.. I.." he hesitated, too scared to reject or accept, "I c-can't.." he finally let it out and was met with the second guy shaking his head in disapproval. It looked like he was a father who was disappointed with his son's bad decision or behavior. He did not look exactly furious how the first guy did, but this was more on a personal level. Shame and guilt began to claw at Akira even though he could not explain why, since he did not even know the person at all.

"I am disappointed. I was ready to make you such a deal to ensure that you and your friends were going to get out of this safe, and this is how you treat me back?" Raven wanted to protest but decided against it, he was way too exhausted and out of it yet each word carved itself into his sanity, "Now I have to let him hurt you again since I can't do anything." After that sentence, the first one stood up, and Akira tried to crawl away somehow but he was already against the wall. There was nowhere to run.

"N-no! P-please, no!" He begged while shouting at the second man who now straightened up and walked away while facing the teen with his back. Akira saw him pull out a small box from the inner pocket of his jacket and a lighter; with that, he lit up a cigarette to take in the smoke, "P-please.. Don't l-let him h-hurt m-me.. P-please.." he wanted to reach out his hand but instead ended up falling over once more, "P-please.."

"Attention on me, you motherfucker—!" The original cop was back and he punched him in the face with a fist making Akira spit out saliva that was mixed with blood, "You think you're tough, but trust me—" he pulled raven up by his shirt with their faces only inches apart in the deadly eye contact that made the teen tremble in his hold only more, "—we will break you to the point that you'll be beyond repair."

Akira believed his words.

Because the next thing he knew his shirt was being lifted that revealed multiple bluish and purplish marks all over the place, especially around his stomach. The man thought for a second about something and then dragged his knife in a straight line down the other's chest. The pain was like nothing else; Akira this time finally screamed and curled his fingers as much as he could. It stung and itched, and there was no release from the feeling which was driving him mad. Soon another cut was made, and then third — fully spreading blood all over the pale skin.

"I could stab you right now in the heart, you know." Spoke up to the man, and Akira slowly opened his eyes while heavily breathing. The tip of the knife was pointed right at him, "Still not willing to talk?" Raven did not trust his voice after the screams, so he just remained silent, "Hero 'till the end. Well, then let's give you another shot."

The teen was not even surprised anymore, because nothing in this room was predictable to the point that he got used to one thing switching into another. He felt woozy — he was about to faint. With his shirt lifted up still and his back being fully pressed into the ground he began freezing even more than before. _Was he going to die here?_ The thought suddenly hit him..

..and then he found himself thinking that perhaps that was not such a bad way to go the moment another needle was getting inserted into his skin and the hot liquid made its way inside his bloodstream having an instant effect.

Akira groaned in pain that made his head feel like it was a square with his ears ringing so loud to the point that he was afraid that they were going to pop and bleed, too. There was pressure in them, it felt like he was going up on the plane but he could not make it stop. Then nausea hit him, and he could not hold it in anymore as he emptied his stomach onto the floor - almost choking on his vomit by accident but managing to stay alive through it somehow. Now everything reeked with the horrible smell and the second cop cringed at the sight while telling the other one to clean up who did not even protest since he most likely had seen this coming.

"Can you get any more fucking disgusting?" Snapped the first one while sending a punch into the teen's stomach which resulted in Akira's eyes going wide only more and coughing up another portion of vomit that was much smaller than the previous one.

He felt seriously sick. Dying all of a sudden did not sound like such a bad option anymore, because anything was better than keeping this up. He was so tired and messed up. Akira could feel himself slowly losing grip on his protests and rebellion as he sunk deeper and deeper into a mindless, careless state.

He wanted peace.

"Your teammates left you here to suffer." Stated the older male while stepping with his foot on top of the boy's head and pressing it further. Raven let out a pained cry and opened his mouth to take a quick breath in from shock. Saliva began drooling down into a puddle because he found himself slowly getting more paralyzed with each second, "We will break you — pathetic criminal scum."

The cop finally stepped away and lifted the boy up into a sitting position, straightening up one of his hands and took a hold of his palm.

**"Can you hear me?"**

**"H-huh?"   
  
**

**What?**

"Tell me your account of everything."

**Oh. Right, Sae.**

He talked with Sae Nijima about the case of the Phantom Thieves. He told her everything, because he knew that no matter how distorted her heart was — he could trust her. _Her eyes are scary,_ he thought, and every single time she would stand up and snap her hands against the table the teen would violently flinch away from her. The apologies that would follow were not enough to bandage the mental state that he felt himself crumbling down under.

At one point when Akira was in the middle of talking with the prosecutor he felt his head suddenly becoming light, and his whole body fell forward with his face smashing against the metallic table at full speed. It hurt, and the pain that radiated from his nose sent electric shocks to all limbs of his body which jolted him awake. But he could not sit still. Every second he felt like someone was standing behind him and could hurt him at any given moment.

Sae Nijima was not providing any comfort nor trust. From the very start raven remembered that Akechi was coming to the underground with an intend to shoot him, and just for a second he thought that maybe letting brunet reach the goal that he probably had been chasing for a while now would be a lot more acceptable than Akira fucking up all of his plans again. It could have been possible that detective had his own goals, motives, ideas and reasons. Heck, he could have been emotionally or mentally abused into such decisions.

Meanwhile Akira broke into the smallest pieces after a single encounter that he was not sure he'd be able to recover from any time soon.

Still, he gave Nijima his phone and directed her towards the right path. He had no idea what he was doing this for and for who, after all — he, personally, saw zero point in all of this.

**"What happened to you, Akira?"**

**I don't understand.**

**Green forest killed the little mouse.**

Everything was happening in a haze. One moment he was inside the prosecutor's car listening to the muffled outside noises and the next thing he knew he was forced to stand on his unstable, bleeding legs as if nothing had happened. Even more, Nijima was snapping at him for being difficult and dirty, which felt like a punch in the gut.

"Akira, if you won't help me — we'll get noticed. Please, try to put in at least a bit of effort into walking."

**Green forest, little house-**

**-your shoe got bitten by a mouse.**

"What the hell happened to him?!" Sojiro exclaimed as he watched the boy stumble inside his store, "He looks like he had been through hell." _I was,_ thought Akira but he had no power to talk it out loud. Instead, the teenager slowly made his way towards the sofas inside Leblanc and dropped his whole body weight on top of them.

"Don't be so loud, Sakura-san.. It's true that he went through a lot today." The woman added with a sad frown, while both adults stared at the raven who kept slowly closing and opening his eyes.

"Nijima, if you won't explain to me what the hell happened, why and how-" He was about to hit his fist against the counter, and Akira's eyes widened at the thoughts that were pacing in his mind. He felt disconnected and away from reality.

**I heard this conversation before.**

**Where am I?**

"It's not my place. I apologize, Sakura-san." Sae bowed her head, and that was the moment when raven groaned in pain and held his head in both hands. His ears were ringing and everything felt like it was closing in on him.

"Akira?!" Sojiro instantly panicked and crouched down by the boy's side with furrowed eyebrows, "Painkillers, painkillers.."

"I don't think that's the best idea.." admitted the grey-haired woman while she looked at him, "He's all drugged up. His friends left him to suffer as a lowlife, scum-like death of a criminal."

**What.**

"We couldn't get any information out of him in the end.." The man grumbled in the back. The boy could see both of his abusers with their backs facing him, while they discussed what they should do next.

"Yeah, plus - I think we overdosed him." The second one looked back to check on Akira - which was when he realized that he was lying on the cold, metal floor. His saliva was pooling from his mouth but he could not care less to control it and his eyes were barely blinking. He felt like a paralyzed, numb doll.

"He looks so out of it." Added the first one with a groan, "Punk?" He called out but got no response. Raven could hear him, but he had no energy nor desire to lift up his eyes from where he was looking at. He couldn't look at the scary men, maybe playing dead is the best option in this situation. Maybe they were going to finally leave him alone.

"Well, let's leave before we get into trouble." Suggested the other one. He walked up once more to the teen and nudged his body with his foot as if it were a piece of trash or a slice of decomposing meat.

"What trouble? Nobody is going to care if this pile of crap dies." Snorted his colleague who instead of being gentle, with all might kicked Akira in the stomach. The boy gagged and coughed, but there was no more vomit left to come out, "He's a slice of dead meat. Let's go." They both left while shutting the door behind themselves.

The room was still cold and gloomy just how it had been at the very start, but now there were needles scattered around, puke covering the floors and droplets of blood here and there. From interrogation, it formed into torture, but they did accomplish their promise - the boy felt broken like a child's old toy that was beyond its repair.   
  
  


"Akira.. You're going to die."

He heard a familiar, gentle voice of his best friend and lazily lifted up his eyelids from the lower corner of the room to look at Ann. She was in her school uniform, with two puffy blonde ponytails hanging off her shoulders like always — but her face was missing. Just a blank space with unknown symbols in black instead of eyes and mouth.

Akira felt terrified looking at that.

"Wake up, Akira. Green forest killed the little mouse. You're going to die." She reached out to touch him with her hand, but it went through him, "Oh." She gasped, "Or are you already dead?"

"W-what... No.. You are n-not.." _You are the one that's not real_ , he wished to say but his lips felt too heavy to move. He just wanted to sleep, but the moment he closed his eyes.

"Knock. Knock." The girl chuckled, "Are you dying?" She asked, and Akira felt like thinking about this too hard was just too much for him, "Are you dying? Are you dying? Are **you** dying? Are you dying **are** you, are you, are you, are you **dying**?" He wanted to let go, he wanted to close his eyes, he wanted the pain to go away and just open his wings of rebellion to freedom. He did all he could, but even people like him have their limit.

The boy lazily stretched his corners of the lips into a smile. He felt bubbly inside, if he was in the right state of mind he might have even laughed. The strange version of Ann tilted its head to the side and hugged its knees while still swinging back and forth on its tiptoes.

"You weren't happy back then." She said, and the next time her hand touched Akira's cheek he could feel a distant shiver of sensation, "So, just fall asleep and never wake up. I'll be here with you." The more he stared at her, the more he could start seeing symbols blurring out of the way and clearing up an accurate representation of Ann's real, _beautiful_ face.

**"Goodnight, Akira."**


End file.
